Headline news currently within the pro-life movement is all about defunding Planned Parenthood. To those who oppose abortion and don’t want their taxpayer dollars to go to this killing industry, it seems like a worthwhile endeavor, but is it? Aren’t our efforts and funds better spent on the mothers and babies?
A friend who used to volunteer for a Pregnancy Resource Center recently commented that she wished pro-life leaders would stop pouring money into legislative and court battles and just concentrate on helping the women in need.
Exactly!
Defunding Isn’t Effective
I received countless email messages from various pro-life organizations begging for money to support their lobbying efforts to get Planned Parenthood (PP) defunded. In the end, they were successful, but only a little bit. The new national budget defunds PP for just one year instead of the 10-year ban that was requested.
All that work for very little result, and there’s already a lawsuit seeking to restore the funds that have been poured by the hundreds of millions every year into PP. Not that PP will be hurting for those funds, although they will loudly cry “Poor us!” and continue their charade as a nonprofit always in need of charitable donations. The truth is:
a) abortion is a highly profitable, billion-dollar business, so PP has dropped most of its other services and pushes abortion sales almost exclusively;
b) whenever PP takes a hit, major corporate and celebrity donors rush to write checks for massive amounts (in 2022, Mackenzie Scott gave $275M; Mark Zuckerberg is also a big donor as is the Gates family and many other billionaires);
c) average Americans, fooled into thinking that PP helps women, will also increase their donations.
In the end, PP will likely get more money from replacement donations than they lost in government funds.
So, the pro-life movement keeps fighting battles that they lose even when they win. Although it is not right to ask pro-life Americans to participate through their taxes in promoting abortion, and we should protest this violation of our consciences, was it worth it to pour so much money and effort into something that results in very little gain? I don’t think so; not when mothers and babies desperately need practical help right this minute.
Court Battles
As another example, think of all the time, effort, and money that has gone into opposing pro-abortion court rulings, most notably Roe v. Wade. When the Supreme Court reversed this ruling three years ago, it was considered a great triumph, but it took 50 years to accomplish.
Along the way, there were those of us in the movement who did not see a reversal as a priority. There were other goals that were more relevant and immediate, most obviously, helping the mothers and babies in crisis and changing the abortion mentality.
After all, although a reversal was desirable, we know that it won’t matter if abortion is legal, if nobody wants one. What’s needed is a cultural change such that abortion becomes unthinkable. Laws reflect what society wants, so we first have to get people to not want abortion, and then the laws will change without battles.
The overturn of Roe is just like defunding Planned Parenthood — the court’s action motivated abortion supporters to up their game, and they got a huge amount of sympathetic publicity and donations out of the ruling.
Furthermore, the battle has just shifted to the states, so here we go again, in 50 different legislatures instead of one court. Wouldn’t it have been better to put our efforts into a marketing campaign that made Pregnancy Resource Centers as well-known to women as the Planned Parenthood brand? Wouldn’t it be better to help so many women that soon our reputation as a trusted resource spread to all women?
Providing for Women’s Needs
As it is, though, only a small percentage of women know that Pregnancy Resource Centers exist. What a shame that is because, when given a choice between the two, obviously, women will go where they can get real help instead of a quick fix with terrible consequences.
Women don’t want an abortion. Surveys show that 60% of post-abortive women would not have gotten an abortion if they had had the support they needed to carry to term. Think of that: we could achieve a 60% reduction in abortions just by providing the kinds of support that women need when faced with an unplanned pregnancy. Favorable court rulings and budget changes haven’t done that.
Further, if pro-life efforts offered that much support, we would destroy the arguments that women can’t succeed without abortion and that a baby is a problem full of obstacles that destroy a woman’s life.
Legislative Alternatives
Beyond the recent budget battle, think of all the time, effort, and money that has gone into opposing pro-abortion legislation through the years. Yes, it is right and proper for us to oppose such legislation, but it is just as important, and perhaps carries a better message, if we direct our legislative efforts towards supporting pregnant women through
- financial assistance for Pregnancy Support Centers and other similar programs,
- food supplement programs,
- requiring universities to provide supportive programs and housing for their pregnant and parenting students,
- longer, paid parental leave,
- protection of pregnant workers’ rights in the workplace,
- increased Medicaid,
- better enforcement of child support payments.
An added advantage is that these types of programs, since they support women, evoke common ground cooperation from those who are usually in the pro-choice camp.
If the pro-life lobby had put greater efforts into sponsoring supportive bills, then legislators and the public might have come to understand that we are not just “pro-birth” but pro-life for the whole life.
The Cost of Support
You might be thinking that we can’t afford the kind of support that would be required to prevent one million abortions a year in the United States. In a blog I posted last year about the proper “Use of Money,” I gave the example of a typical month’s expenses for LoveLine, an organization that helps mothers in need with school expenses, rent, transportation, counseling, and more. The cost averaged out to $375/client. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/musingsfromthepew/2024/06/the-use-of-money/
Of course, some of these women need continued aid over several months, but Heroic Media, another pro-life assistance organization, says that they average $1254 for each life saved. These figures are peanuts compared to the pro-life money spent elsewhere.
I don’t know exactly how much money was spent by pro-life lobbies on their PP defunding efforts, or on legislative efforts or court fights, but it runs into the millions. As important and even necessary as some of these actions are, I think a re-evaluation of priorities is needed.
Instead of exhausting our resources with court and legislative fights, maybe we should concentrate on what will have the biggest social and cultural effects from the ground up, and that’s by being there to walk with each woman who has an unplanned pregnancy.
Setting Priorities
Last February, a number of major pro-life organizations came together to start a new initiative. The idea is to coordinate efforts and try to find best practices. Donors have provided $30M for the new coalition. While one of their objectives is to “strengthen [pro-life] pregnancy centers” and “bring about much, much greater awareness of these resources” there is still talk about other objectives that are based on strategies that have failed repeatedly.
$30M divided by the $1254 Heroic Media figure is 23,923. That’s a lot of lives saved, women helped, and recognition gained. Every time I hear about donations or budgets for pro-life organizations, I now divide it by that number. How many could we prevent from having an abortion if we used that money to provide the support they needed?
Do we want to save lives or not? If we are sincere about doing so, then we need to do what works and forget the power games, the politics, the lecturing, and all the other sidelights to concentrate on the need and how to fill it. If we do that, the culture and the laws will follow.
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